From Tashkent with Love

From Tashkent With Love is a tale of courage, heartbreak and glory spanning four decades. It tells the remarkable story of Cardiff City's football adventures across Europe in the European Cup Winners' Cup. From the thrilling 1.0 victory against the mighty Real Madrid at Ninian Park in 1971, to the heartbreak of a last minute 3.2 home defeat in the semi-final against FC Hamburg in 1968, Cardiff's 24 Cup Winner's Cup games are all recalled by the best-selling author Mario Risoli who interviewed over 70 former players in the writing of this comprehensive book. Their 29-year European odyssey saw the Bluebirds face some of the biggest names in continental football - Sporting Lisbon, Zaragoza, FC Porto and Dynamo Berlin - and included their epic and pulsating 1968 quarter-final tie against the crack Soviet side Torpedo Moscow. With the game switched from icy Moscow to Tashkent, in what is now Uzbekistan, City were forced to make a remarkable 8,000-mile round trip to the borderlands of China and Afghanistan, a journey which still survives as one of the furthest distances travelled by any British club in a European cup competition.